Julian again

I would've probably remembered more if I jot down something once I woke up.

We were at this house with polished wooden floors. Looks a helluva lot like Ain's place in Sydney. It was kinda dim inside, the lights were yellow. Lots of doors that are aligned were left opened, so there's like a hallway of sorts but it was really a series of interconnected rooms.

If I'm not mistaken there was a show being hosted there. Ellen perhaps (Strokes are gonna perform on Ellen next Tuesday - 31st May maybe that's why I dreamt this). And Julian Casablancas was the guest. Oddly enough I couldn't see anybody else. Just him. But the atmosphere felt like cheery, like there's loads of people. Happy people.

Julian came and he suddenly went into the sort of dive that footballers do on the grass when they score a goal. Y'know, the skidding kneeling one? Julian did that. Thing is, the floor's really smooth, so he ended up skidding on his knees all the way...out of sight.

He had his shades on. As usual. Wore the outfit he wore in the Boombox MV. All smiles and laughter. Made me warm and fuzzy just thinking about it hahah.

At one point in the dream some random guy was choking me. I remember it was actually me who was looking for him and then it turned bad somehow and he started chasing me and cornered me in the same house and pinned me to the wall, with his big hands closing on my neck. It didn't feel like it hurt, just the sensation of someone clasping their hands onto your neck. He seemed pissed. Said something but I was busy trying not to die I guess.

Then I woke up.

Nick (Fragments)

Nick
Fangirl likes Strokes plays covers of their songs
Song's called 'Serotonin' (No such song)
Girl has a panic attack
Nick reassures her
Girl hugs and suddenly kisses Nick on the lips
Albert, Fab, Nikolai and Julian was there
Everything is actually on a YouTube video I'm watching
I keep replaying the vid
Albert: "OHHH, it's getting physical!" Mouth hangs open, funny face.
Other Strokes members shocked.

_______________

Unfamiliar house
Dark inside, like it's dusk but nobody's turned the light on yet cause the Sun's still out
Strange bedroom
Picture frames on the bedside table, I fiddled with them
Strokes fangirl was in the house too, played the piano like shit
Roomie was there, using her laptop, her boyfriend sent her a drawing
A sketch of a pair of hands, and some writing, "I'm dyslexic"
I got excited
He plays the piano too
I thought, 'We should high-five each other!'
Something happened, disappointed
Looked out of the window
Green yard
Lots of cats
Somebody called my name

___________________
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

I woke up to pray for subuh, slept for an hour more

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
__________________

This time, Julian's in it
and that's all I remember

Strokes

Since I've been terribly busy today. I haven't got time to type down my dream soon enough to remember how it started. Oh well, here goes...

_____________________________________________________________

There was a some sort of festival, a crowd was gathered under large tents set up along the main street that is somewhat similar to one of the streets in Melbourne City. Somehow, I just knew that most of the people there were either JPA scholars or MARA scholars. There were some officers checking attendance and shaking people's hands. The atmosphere of excitement and overall well-being was palpable.

Time goes by and everybody started leaving, night was about to fall. I don't remember much what happened after I spotted the officers, it was afternoon and suddenly it was getting dark. A friend of mine (Mai) greeted me and asked me to come over to her house (which, looks nothing like her actual home). In this dream, she lived in one of the shops along the street. There were boxes stacked along the walls and lots of things on the carpet that I can't really single out. I have a feeling that they were mostly toys belonging to her kid brother.

We were just wading through the sea of boxes, chatting, doing nothing in particular when suddenly I spotted Julian Casablancas of The Strokes (Yeap. FINALLY. Jules in my dreams.) crossing the street. We hurried outside and caught up with him. Fab (Drummer of The Strokes) was with him. So I asked them if we could take a picture with them. A stranger agreed to take our picture so we posed together on a park bench in front of my friend's House/Shop.

I distinctly remember seeing myself, my friend, Julian and Fab all smiling and trying to get the picture taken in the third person. I put my hand on Fab's shoulder and decided that it was too awkward so I put my back hand down again. I have no idea why I remember this bit particularly clearly.  Then, my friend's dad suddenly stormed out of the House/Shop looking pissed as hell. I'm not sure why but I kinda simply got up and took off. Julian and Fab looked positively confused.

Before I knew it, Mai's dad started chasing after me. At this stage, Fear is very much distinct.

I went into a supermarket and went through an 'EXIT' back door which leads to a very very long dingy, poorly lit hallway. The old man's still following me so I quickly went into the bathroom, which was identical to the hallway except that it had toilet stalls. For some reason, my friend's dad didn't follow me in. So I just kinda stood in one of the stalls staring at the toilet bowl. It was kinda yellow, not ickly looking but not sparkly clean either. I thought I ought to just go out and explain to him that I was just trying to take a picture with Julian and Fab, nothing remotely suspicious.

So, I stepped out of the toilet. The old guy still looked angry, I didn't say anything and made my way out of the supermarket. As I headed for the front doors, a random old lady started to put a bra on over her blouse and I thought - 'People these days are crazy.' My friend's dad followed me still. After a while just walking in silence, I had a brilliant idea of trying to distract him from telling me off by talking about cameras. In my dream, I simply knew that my friend's dad had recently bought himself a dSLR but didn't know how to use it. So I explained to him how to use the ISO and aperture dials. My plan was a success. We walked briskly back to the House/Shop as I nervously explained the various functions dSLRs has.

Once we reached the House/Shop, Julian and Fab was still at the bench with my friend. They were waiting for me so that we can still get our picture taken. This time, my friend's dad was gonna help us. Again, we posed happily. Again, we were interrupted. My friend's mom and another woman had lifted the bench and moved it while we were all still sitting on it. They didn't have any difficulty doing it at all, which puzzled me in the dream. Because, it was perfectly impossible! (Maybe if I had realized this more acutely, I'd have become lucid haha).

So we all stood up and stared at the ladies. They were angry with us, what for I have no idea. We were all getting pretty disgruntled. My friend's dad told us to ignore the women and told us to smile and snapped a picture of us together, FINALLY. The camera was a polaroid camera so we had a look at the picture. Julian was gone. There was like a blurry figure where he should've stood because when my friend's dad clicked the shutter button, somebody called Julian's name and he bolted into the House/Shop.

Then I woke up. *sigh*

Skinless

It all started out pretty normal. A friend of mine, Bie, gave me a birthday gift wrapped in news paper, a Japanese calligraphy set. I distinctly remember that I could guess what was my gift because the news paper wrapping it had an article with two small pictures of the Japanese calligraphy set. I was ecstatic, I kept thanking her.

* * * * *

Then the sky turned stormy grey, like it was about to rain and suddenly I was in my old high school. There was me and a handful of students in the class and my Malay Studies lecturer from college was sitting at the teacher's desk. She asked me to do some tasks for her. I was reluctant at first but I agreed.

* * * * *

A complete blank. Just plain black. 

The next scene I remember is completely unrelated to the first two but what they do have in common is that the sky outside was still very very dark. It was not night though. It merely looked like there was a storm arriving. It gave the impression that I was still dreaming the same day but with gaps between them that I cannot seem to remember.

* * * * *

I was sitting at a wooden table with my family, at a restaurant. Even though it was dark outside, no lights were turned on. We just sat there waiting for our food to arrive. For some reason, it also felt like I was expecting somebody else to arrive. The sense of 'waiting' and 'mild anxiety' coloured my impression of this whole scene. 

Of all my family members at the table, I only remember my Dad. I did not actually talk to my mom or little brother but I knew they were there. Dad looked displeased that he was kept waiting. I kept twiddling with my assorted wrist bands. A particularly pretty looking bracelet jumps to mind. It did not have beads on it, just red jade-like material cut into leave shapes. Cabbage leaves.

The food never came. Everybody decided to leave. The next thing I know is that I was walking towards a park with my parents. We were heading for my Dad's working place, a university. It was still very dark but now the winds had started to pick up. I remember this because the dried leaves in the park were caught in the wind, they looked almost alive. When we neared the steel gates of the park, Dad decided that he had to go to his office, so we split up. There was only me and my mother. 

As soon as mom opened the steel gates, a man slipped behind us. I could see him yet I could not actually see him. He was just all black, like a shadow made solid. He said he only wanted to follow us to the prayer room and only then do I realize that we were on our way there. From his gentle voice, I decided that he was harmless. I did not feel any fear or malice for him, but I did feel a little nervous because I could not see his face.

The park was deserted. We kept walking and the man followed. Eventually, we went into an underground tunnel and the angry sound of stormy winds stopped. The tunnel led to a large public washroom. We were going to perform our ablutions.There were  quite a lot of people there. For some reason there were three Caucasian guys in the washroom too, they were sitting on the toilets and looked like they were being tortured. I also had the odd feeling that not all of us in the washroom were human at all. Some seemed to have animosity bared in the plains of their faces, their eyes a little too dark, their body language giving off a terrifying predatory aura. I struggled to perform my ablutions because men and women were not separated. Also, I was scared witless.

It was there, under the bright fluorescent lights that the true horror of the Shadow man's appearance were revealed. He had no skin. None at all. He was as red as raw meat because that was all he was. He looked exactly like the pictures of the 'Muscular System' and he was dripping blood a little. He also did not have any eyes and a mouth. Where they should be, there were only smooth red muscle. Skinless, he was naked in the truest sense of the word. 

I stared at him until he turned his head and seemed to spot me. He looked away and appeared to be humiliated so I stopped staring and hurried into the prayer room. 

As I was about to pray, there was a knocking coming from the inside of a door (which, incidentally is identical to my maid's room at my house), so I went over and opened the door and peered inside (The room was identical to my maid's room at my house). Standing there was the Shadow man, except he now looked like a whole, normal and healthy person. In fact, he was good looking in a very ordinary kind of way. He was smiling and asked me if he could borrow one of the shirts strewn around the room. I said yes and left.

Even though I left, I could still see the inside of the room. An invisible third party spectator, like in films. Shadow man was having difficulty putting the shirt on when a brisk knocking and an angry shout to 'Hurry up!' pierced the silent and happy scene. It took quite a while for him to finally put the shirt on and when he finally did, he yanked the door open with alarming force.

And that is the end. The last thing I remember about the dream before I woke up is, 'Shadow man is angry.'